"I don't know. There's sixty of us, barring your niggers; we ought to get
eleven to look at a football with a business eye out of that lot, you
know."

"We ought to, but don't."

"We ought to do something in the schools too."

"We ought to, but don't, though Raven is in for the Perry Exhibition.
Guess he won't pull it off, though."

"We'll see about that, too," said Acton. "As for the niggers--"

"Oh, never mind them!" burst in Worcester. "Without humbug, Acton, do you
really want our house to move a bit?"

"Rather!"

"Well, then, consent to captain our footer eleven and we give ourselves a
chance, for I can't make the fellows raise a gallop at any price, and I
somehow think you can. Have a try. If you are sick of it at Christmas,
I'll come in again; honour bright. It isn't too good-natured of me to ask
you to pull Biffen's out of the mud, but you're the only fellow to do it
if it can be done. Will you?"

"You wouldn't mind resigning?"

"By Jove, no!" said Worcester, precipitately.